I just picked up a 7X57. Yall keep your eyes peeled for some quality brass. I know availability probably ebbs and flows like other cartridges do now a days, but I'm not currently seeing any at my usual website haunts. Thanks in advance for a head's up.

Make it out of 270 brass if you can't find any Optics planet shows 7x57 in stock but I'd call and make sure.

https://www.opticsplanet.com/norma-7x57mm-mauser-unprimed-rifle-brass.html

It as very difficult to find and very expensive if it's Nosler.

Have you tried Powder Valley? They have carried PPU 7x57 brass in the past at a good price.

Also look for Hornady 275 Rigby brass. It shows up every few years.

PS.

I wouldn't give ten cents for the last batch of Winchester 7x57 brass I bought a few years ago.

Stay away. Garbage.

Midway USA has some Privi Partizan coming soon according to their web site. I know some people that have used it with good success.

Midway, powder valley, brunos, natchez, midsouth, grafs, brownells.. all strike out for now. There is a little on gunbroker, but not much is new. Found some PPU ammo at buds pretty reasonably priced. May have to buy some ammo first to get some brass.

It's easy to turn 270 into 7x57

Now hear this: Grafs has 7x57 brass. Prvi Partizan. That is all.

I was gonna suggest buying some Norma whitetail 7x57 but they apparently don’t make it. Kinda shocked. They offer 6.5x55, 8x57, and 9.3x62. Good ammunition and good once fired brass when you’re done.

MidwayUsa just sent me a notice that their Privi Partizan 7x57 brass is in stock.
Better get on the stick.

Bought 100 pieces of brass from Grafs a couple of weeks ago. My dies and 60 rounds of the PPU 139 gr spitzer ammo arrived today. I'll be at least running a few down the barrel this weekend to get the scope on paper. Can't wait to do some testing with the pills I'd like to shoot out of it.

I’m an old school homer, but the 6.5x55 and 7x57, in the words of Larry Potterfield, “just make sense”. 7x57 is a round I want one day, despite owning 7mm08, 280, and 7mm mag.

This rifle is proving to be a challenge. I like challenges.

What kind of rifle is it?

I have an old Ruger tanger that is very picky on bullets. Doesn't like boat tail bullets. Shoots partitions great.

My brother picked up a M70 FW a few years ago and it would barely group 140 gr partitions into a paper plate but likes 140 gr Hornady IL bullets.

Interarms Mark X.. (commercial mauser). I want to shoot 145 Speer hot cors and the 145 boattails at 2700 to match the BDC reticle in the diamondback vortex I put on it. Everything Ive read puts the 4350 class powders in the cartridges wheelhouse. Ive wore out my scale with test groups with IMR 4350 to no avail. Most groups were 3 -3.5" at 100 yds. I did have 1 group that produced a solid 2" grp, but the velocity was well below 2700. I tried a few other powders this weekend and shortened the seating depth some. I finally got a less than 1" grp with H380 at a velocity just under 2700. Hopefully that combo is repeatable - if so, I'm going to tweak it a bit to see if I can gain a touch of velocity and maybe get under 3/4 MOA.

The rifle has the long military style throat for the 170gr class pills. Those flat base 145s will not touch the lands if the bullet is just sitting on the mouth of the case. Good to shove more powder in the case, but I'll never get them to my standard starting point of 0.015" off the lands.

I've had a few Interarms rifles and they've all been decent shooters. IMR4350 has always been my go to powder for the 7x57. 2700 FPS is on the slow side for 145 gr bullets especially if your rifle has the standard 23.8" barrel. 2850 FPS should be easy. I'm thinking you need to get velocity up to see what the rifle is capable of accuracy wise.

I have pushed 140 gr partitions to 3000 FPS out of my 22" barreled Ruger. This is really mashing the accelerator in this cartridge and I DO NOT recommend it, but it can be done. I used this load for several years and I killed a few dozen deer with it.

Might try some Big Game powder if you have any on hand.

All the loading resources were telling me 49ish was the top out load. I was at 50.5gr before it got above 2700 according to my magneto speed chrono. I wasn't using a drop tube to pack the powder, but it was a good ways up into the neck. What weights were you getting to?

The Hornady loading guide from the early eighties had a max load of 53.0 gr IMR4350 with 139 gr bullets.

I doubt any loading guide published in the last 40 years lists a max load over 50 gr with 140 gr bullets. This is the load i used and it almost filled the case to the top of the neck. Lots of powder crunching when seating bullets.

The long throat on your gun is probably reducing pressure and velocity. I was able to load 140 gr bullets in my gun to almost touch the lands. Last time I chronoed the 53 gr load was about 15 years ago and it was 3010 FPS. This is actually a little too hot so I switched bullets to a 150 partition at around 2800 FPS. Max velocities with 140 gr bullets in a 22" barrel should be around 2900 FPS. With your longer barrel you should easily get 2850 FPS with a 145.

Roger that.. will make an effort to run her on up and see what happens.

I really dont mind a slower velocity though. I've got rifles I max out and shoot to the horizon, but this one was leaning more towards nostalgia than squeezing performamce. H380 was my go-to powder in a 270 I loaded for and my 243 sporter years ago. After shooting 3 and 4" groups two weekends in a row, anything consistently under 1 MOA and around 2700 will be fine and dandy like molasses and candy.

If you have any 160s try them. Why? Well why not.

Nostalgia.. ive got an article where Jack O'Connor talks about the cartridge from the mid 70s. He shot 140s and 145s out of his and killed everything he shot at in Africa and NA. His wife shot 160s. Jack was a handloader, so it's a very good chance they were shooting these very same bullets back then. Without any specific load info, im trying to reproduce as close as possible what he was using. Also the guys on the terminal ballistics webpage were very convincing in the write up for the 7x57. The Speer145's will kill anything I ever plan on shooting with it in a very convincing way.

I'm not saying I wont try the heavier bullets at some point, but for right now I'm stepping back in time to Mr. O'Connor's day.

I would seat the bullet out so far hopefully the bolt will barely close and it will still feed. Experience has taught me to let the rifle determine what to do next. Step #1 is to start there not somewhere else although I think most of y'all probably start off the lands. I never do that.

The bolt will easily close when a bullet is just sitting on the mouth of the case. I will be tweaking my best combos of powder, charges, and seating depths. Im close to what I want. I just had to try something other than 4350. The good news is that when I finish tweaking these hot cors, I'll get to try the speer boat tails.

H414 with the 145's. Thank me later.

Interarms Mark X's were built when it was in vogue to throat the chamber for the old military 175 gr RN bullet. They were made, as I'm sure you know, in what is now 'Serbia. At that time there were a LOT of old Mausers floating around over there and ammo was reasonable as long as it was military surplus, which meant 175 gr. I have run across several and it is a real chore to get them to shoot anything that far from the lands. The 175 Hornady 7mm bullet is worth a try and it wont ruin a lot of meat at 7x57 speeds. Jimmy McCollough (McCollough Rifle Co in Valley Grand) can fix this with a Douglas barrel. Good Luck.







Che

Swapped over to the 145 gr speer boat tails today from the flat base 145s. Shot 6 different recipies and man what a difference. Three of the six produced 1" groups or smaller... one of them produced a cloverleaf. Pretty amazing that it can make that much difference.

I have a youth ruger 243Win American that likes sierra boat tail game kings over the prohunter, but it will still do fairly well with the prohunters. This 7x57 takes it to the extreme and spits the speer flat bases out like watermelon seeds.

Good groups with H380, IMR4350, and the sleeper was IMR3031.

I’ve been waiting on this post ^^^^. I knew it was only a matter of time before you dialed up a winning combination. Nice work